France, 1800. Napoleon and several other wealthy shareholders establish the new Banque de France to begin issuing interest-free loans in order to build confidence in the French finance system. This is a direct threat to the existing Rothschild banking system in Europe. Fast forward to 1812. Nathan and James Rothschild are funding both sides of the war between Britain and France - the former funded Prince William and transferred his wealth to Frankfurt while the latter funded Napoleon. Because Rothschilds are allied with both factions in the war, their carriers are able to cross both nation's blockades. Nathan and James engage in substantial arbitrage by smuggling notes and gold across the blockade - his courier network was famous for its speed and even used carrier pigeons. The British treasury bond had been tanking for a long time leading up to the battle of Waterloo, sinking at one point beneath 50 pounds. Nathan knew that Britain would win the war. In fact, the battle at Waterloo would not likely have changed this fact even if it had been lost by Britain. But in securities markets *perception* is everything. Since he knew the bonds would eventually climb, and steeply so if Britain did win at Waterloo, he just needed to spark a sell-off of the outstanding debt. Before actual news from the battle (Britain defeated Napoleon) had made it to the London exchange, Nathan capitalized on the fact everyone knew his couriers were the fastest. He lied and announced that Napoleon had won. This tanked the treasury bonds, everyone dumped them, and Nathan bought them all up. Of course by the time the truth was clear, Rothschild increased his family's worth by what today would be hundreds of millions, and effectively gained de facto financial control over Great Britain. In the process, the banking family is able to manipulate both sides of the war to eliminate the banking competition which Napoleon had begun to build. This combined with all of their other speculative finance causes the Rothschilds bank to amass more wealth than most of the individual nations of Europe, many of which would become indebted to them in order to fight wars and remain solvent. These same tactics used by hedge funds today were used by the original banking elite to swindle Europe and to assume the driver's seat of history since the 19th century. Don't mention this story about Nathan Rothschild on Reddit! You'll be called an anti-semite, and that it's a 'bad take on history'.